Mission to the Land of Lightning
by Peacemaker01
Summary: naruto and hinata are chosen for a mission in the land of lightning. Hinata finally gets her chance to be alone with naruto.
1. Chapter 1: The Mission

**Mission to the Land of Lightning**

Chapter 1

The mission scroll of mystery

Shizune had been doing assignments for Tsunade all day long, take and bringing messages to and from the Hokage herself. Shizune is Tsunade's advisor and also best friend. One day, Shizune was receiving a mission scroll from a jonin who was passing it off.

"Whose mission is this?" asked Shizune to the jonin. He shrugged and began to explain.

"Well, it's complicated. See, we don't know who this mission belongs to, or where it came from. It's more like we found this scroll. We found it hanging from the ceiling tied by a long string. We even ran tests on it too; there are no fingerprints or anything on it anywhere. Whoever delivered it must have been a very skilled ninja from another village. As for the level, we made an accurate prediction of at least a B-rank mission". said the jonin. Shizune was mystified. This was the first time a mission scroll had shown up like this. After the mission was given to Shizune, she gave the scroll to Lady Tsunade and told her the same story she was told by the jonin. After looking at the scroll and hearing Shizune's story, she began to contemplate.

"Hmmmmm..... A mission like this with absolutely no evidence of anyone touching it. Well........ regardless of the lack of information on this mission, it still needs to be done." thought Tsunade. She looked at her clipboard of the ninja that were still in the village. Everyone was on a mission except for two ninja. She turned to Shizune who had been waiting to receive an answer.

"Shizune, go round up these two ninja. I'm giving the mystery mission to them." said Tsunade. She gave the clipboard to Shizune to examine the choices, and one quick glance worried her. She looked to Tsunade from the clipboard.

"Lady Tsunade, are you sure you want to choose them? I mean, this is a pretty high level mission and I'm worried if they can handle it or not." said Shizune in a worried tone.

"I know. But no one else is available, and they make a pretty good team. They're all we got for now." she said. Shizune nodded understanding her reasoning and left in a hurry to get the two participants of the new assignment. Shizune hit it on the mark looking for one of the ninja, who was almost always training at the training grounds. The occupant of the training field was Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto was the true-blue odd ball of the hidden leaf village. He had a bright shock of yellow hair and shimmering eyes that were as blue as the sky.

The whisker marks on his cheeks symbolized the Nine Tailed Fox that was sealed inside of him. The Nine Tailed Fox was a demon that attacked the hidden leaf village 16 years ago in an attempt to destroy everything. However, The Fourth Hokage was able to seal the beast inside Naruto in exchange for his own life. Doing so, in hope that Naruto would be revered to as a hero of the village. The villagers, however, ignored the Fourth Hokage's last wish and shunned Naruto from the entire village population. After he became a full fledged ninja though, everything started to change for him, so he now has lots of friends.

He was loud, obnoxious and almost always wore an orange jacket that was black on the shoulders and sleeves. Because of his tough past, Naruto had the large dream of becoming the Sixth Hokage, which was the leader ninja of the entire leaf village. He trained everyday working himself until he couldn't move and sometimes injuring himself. He trained like a crazy person. He was doing vertical push-ups when Shizune found him.

"Naruto!" she said interrupting his training. Naruto ceased his push-ups and used his detached shirt as a rag to whip off his sweat.

"Hey Shizune! What's up? I hope you bothered me to give me a mission?" asked Naruto hopefully. Shizune nodded with a smile.

"You hit it right on the head Naruto, but this mission is special of sorts." she said scratching the side of her head.

"Hugh? What do you mean 'special'?" asked Naruto dumbly. Shizune started walking away, gesturing Naruto to follow her.

"Lady Tsunade will explain when you got to the Hokage's House to pick up your mission. I gotta go!" she said running off like she forgot something important. Naruto shrugged and put his shirt back on and headed for Lady Tsunade's place.

The other ninja that Shizune had set out to look for was Hinata Hyuga. She was found in another part of the hidden leaf forest. She was training alone with no one to watch her. After finishing up two-thousand jabs of her gentle fist Byankugan, Shizune found her in the forest. Hinata Hyuga was unlike most girls. She was very shy, and hard to talk to because of the way she mumbles and stutters a lot. On top of that, she was never really sure of herself in anything.

One thing that was breathtaking about her though, was her beauty. Long black shiny hair that was very straight and healthy. When Hinata wasn't shy enough to smile, her smile could fill anybody with joy. And of course, the most interesting thing about Hinata was her eyes. Such beautiful eyes that were almost white, but were instead a very pale lavender. Her eyelashes were long and beautifully curved. She was almost a perfect role model for every young lady.

"Hinata!" said Shizune. She had surprised Hinata from behind and unintentionally scared her. She turned to see Shizune with a shy smile.

"Oh.... Miss Shizune. Hello." said Hinata quietly. Shizune drew closer to Hinata and reported.

"Hello Hinata. Lady Tsunade wants to see you for your next mission." said Shizune casually. Hinata nodded.

"Okay. I guess we'll head back there now." said Hinata just as quietly as before. The two of them walked back to Tsunade's office back at Hokage Tower. In the conference room, hinata got a very good, yet unexpected surprise. Naruto stood with his hands behind his head and his elbows up. He looked irritated as he was waiting for something.

"Oh! Oh no! What's he do-doing here?" thought Hinata as her face turned red. Ah yes, how could I forget to tell you something very important about HInata Hyuga. She is madly in love with Naruto Uzumaki. It was because of him that she is able to become stronger and stronger everyday. Hinata always looked up to Naruto as a hard worker, persevering and attemtping to always do things that were far above his own level. Not only was it his attitude that she loved about him, it was his body.

He was very strong in chakra, strength and heart. She just loved the color of his hair and eyes and just wanted to gaze upon and touch his handsome face. Oh how she loved him so much. But poor Naruto is too much of an oblivious idiot and too hardheaded to notice her feelings. Naruto looked around the room until Hinata had met his gaze and he had met her. He smiled but then looked confused.

"Hey HInata! What are you doing here?" asked Naruto looking drawn to Hinata's presence.

"H-Hi... N-Naruto." she said. "I-I'm here to take a m-mission from Lady Ts-Tsunade." said Hinata slowly. Naruto looked at Tsunade as she commanded both of them to stand before her.

"Good to see you guys were found by Shizune. Thank you." said Tsunade nodding at Shizune. Shizune bowed and let Tsunade finish. "Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga. You are going to be placed on a very special asignment together." said looked surprised, but Hinata was devistated. She had always wanted to be with Naruto, but whenever she was with him, she could only talk slowly and quietly, or faint. She only fainted if Naruto had made any physical contact with her.

"Cool, its been awhile since I've been on a mission; its esspecially been awhile since I've seen Hinata too. Come to think of it, this is my first time seeing you again since I came back with pervy sage." said Naruto ginning at her excitedly. Hinata's heart fluttered like a butterfly's wings everytime Naruot smiled at her like that.

"Y-Yes. I-It is the first w-we've seen eachother s-since you came back." she sad shyly. Naruto shortly laughed at Hinata.

"If you're done reminscing, I'd like to explain to you two what your mission situation is." said Tsunade. Naruto and Hinata both listened intently. "Your mission will be... difficult of sorts. When we first got the mission, it was an abandoned scroll left by someone who had intended to give it to me and approve it as a mission. And when we found out what was inside, the rank for the mission was a B-Rank or hight. This is your mission:" Tsunade pasued to pull open a drawer from her desk and pulled out a green scroll. She opened it and read aloud

"There is a strange situation going down in the land of lightning. A strange intelligence has revealed information stating that a scroll known as the Sacred Scroll of Dragons is in danger of being stolen. The scroll is said to contain a very devastating jutsu that could wreck havoc everywhere if that jutsu was put into the hands of someone eil. It is your job as Konoha Shinobi to assist in guarding the scroll in the land of lightning." said Tsunade. Naruto jammed a fist into his hand and cracked his knuckles.

"Perfect! just what I was hoping for!" said Naruto already getting overly excited. "So how many people are going on the mission with me and Hinata?" asked Naruto stupidly.

"Oh? Well, I'm afraid that all the other ninja are out doing other assignments right now. It'll have to be just you and HInata alone on this one. Do you think you guys can handle it?" asked Tsunade. Naruto looked at Hinata who looked completely red in the face and nodded.

"Yeah, with out a doubt! I know that Hinata and I got this!" said Naruto thrusting a fist high in the air. Tsunade grinned and nodded.

"Very well then, you better be ready to hit the road leave tomorrow morning as soon as first light. The travel between our two nations will take at least four days. We all wish you the best of luck!" said Tsunade. Both Naruto and Hinata bowed and headed out the door. As they were walking out together on the way out of the hokage tower, they discussed their mission.

"This is gonna be so great! Its been a while since I've had a good mission. What about you Hinata?" asked Naruto.

"W-Well I haven't been on a mission i-in a while. I-I'm excited to go on this mission." said Hinata looking away from Naruto with a blush on her cheeks. Naruto smiled and breathed in the fresh air.

"Yeah? Well I guess we're both excited." said Naruto as he was turning the corner. "See you tomorrow Hinata! Remember, first light is when we leave!" said Naruto waving as he left with his back towards Hinata. She waved good bye slightly and sighed as she watched Naruto walk away. She headed back to her house as will to het some sleep for the night. As Naruto walked back to his house, a strange thought was floating around in his thick, empty head.

"Hmmmm... Something is different about her, but what is it? I know something has changed..." he thought. Poor, poor Naruto. How oblivious can you be?


	2. Chapter 2: The Ambush

Chapter 2

Hinata slowly walked up to the village's main gate. It was early and the sun had begun to rise over the distant mountains. She was blushing as she thought about her dreams last night. Ever since she was assigned to a mission that was just her and Naruto, she couldn't dream about anything else besides being with Naruto. When she made it to the gate, who else but Naruto was already there waiting for her. he was found leaning on one of the pillars that supported the gate. He looked to his left and saw Hinata coming to meet him. He stopped leaning on the pillar and greeted Hinata as she drew closer to him.

"Morning Hinata! Ready to go?" asked Naruto who was about ready to jump from excitement. Hinata nodded.

"Y-Yes, I-I'm ready." she said. They both continued walking and headed out to begin their mission. It wasn't until they were far away from the village that Hinata began to think about something to say to Naruto. She had suck trouble talking to him, so before she said anything, she thought it through her head. "Okay... w-what should I say? L-Let's see... he likes training, and he does it everyday; he likes talking about his progress. Oooooh that won't do! I-I have to find something interesting to talk about! But..." Thought Hinata looking at Naruto who was concentrating on the road and some birds that were following them up above. Failing to think of anything to talk about, Hinata's face turned a little sad. Naruto saw her and walked a little closer.

"Hey, what's wrong Hinata?" asked Naruto. Hinata looked up at him and blushed. His concern wasn't great, but it at least was a symbol that she wasn't completely invisible to Naruto. They both smiled at each other, with Hinata blushing a little bit.

"U-Um... N-Naruto?" said Hinata. Naruto turned around to her and smiled. Then, he pushed her away about ten feet. Hinata fell on her butt and was surprised above all else. After a second or two, Pinata realized that she could've been killed. A kunai knife had flown in-between them and had exploded with a paperbomb attached to it. Pinata got up quickly and searched for Naruto who had already engaged with the enemy. Naruto had a kunai knife out and had crossed knives with a man that looked about his age with black hair, glasses, skinny and clearly looking like a wimp. He was wearing a brown and black vest that came over his shoulders as armor. Around his neck and down his back he had what looked like an old raged piece of cloth that was being used as some sort of cape. He had very dark blue gloves on with metal guards on the top of them. To finish it off, the man was wearing a ninja headband from the land of lightning.

He was struggling for dominance over Naruto with his knife. Naruto guarded against him and threw him away with his knife. "Hinata!" yelled Naruto with distress in his voice. The man had come back at Naruto with the knife again but this time a little more intrigued than before and wanting to attack Naruto with the intent of winning. Hinata didn't understand at first, but then looked to her left sharply and found another man similarly dressed as the other man coming at her swiftly with a kunai knife in his gloved fist. She got up halfway and did a one handed flip out of the way of the charging man. After she was back up on her feet, she entered her Hyuga fighting stance, ready to fight off the interceptors. This man had yellow hair like Naruto's and was also about Naruto's age. He had brown eyes and wore a green scarf around his neck along with the cape.

The man came at her in an attempt to cut her, but she parried his attack and jabbed him in the upper chest and dealt a critical blow to his body. From one blow, the man began to spit up blood and trickled down the corners of his mouth. but the man had not given up. He backed up quickly from Hinata and made three hand signs (Ox, rabbit, horse). The man then shouted, "Lightning Snake!" and outstretched an arm towards Hinata. Instead of moving out of the way, Hinata used Neji's old rotation technique and deflected the lightning stream with ease. Then after that, Hinata sped forward as hast as she could and attempted to jab the man in the neck, face, or chest again. But the man kept backing up, running away from her, or dodging her attacks. Then after a little bit of running around, Hinata finally found an opening and jabbed him with her gentle fist. After the jab, the man was down and Hinata left to go look for her companion.

Naruto was having a little trouble with his opponent. The man he was fighting was strong, fast, and knew some pretty nasty jutsu. Naruto jumped away from his opponent and made a shadow clone hand sign. Four other Naruto's appeared next to the original and then they all charged with individual kunai knives at the man. Just when the clones came close to the man, they suddenly got trapped inside a bunch of nearly visible nylon threads that were like a big net or web of some sort set about few trees along the road. the man had jumped far away and made some hand signs (snake, tiger, dragon, rabbit, tiger) and shouted: "Dragon Flame Jutsu: Net Form!". As the flames emitted from his body, they crept along the many nylon threads where the Naruto clones were trapped and tangled. as the fire net was complete all the clones disappeared and the fire died down slowly. From afar, Hinata had witnessed the whole thing, and worried if Naruto had gotten badly injured from the flames. But as the flames disappeared, there was no Naruto body at all.

"What!" yelled the man in frustration. Suddenly, Naruto came up from behind the man and put a kunai knife against his opponent's neck. Naruto chuckled in victory as the frightened man didn't move a muscle.

"You were pretty good, but there's no way you can beat me!" said Naruto as the man continued to stand frozen in panic. Naruto then knocked him out with a couple blows to his noggin. after the man was wiped out, Hinata came running towards Naruto. Naruto turned to see her and smiled. Hinata stopped a few feet away from Naruto and smiled with a slight blush.

"Th-That was great N-Naruto! how did you appear behind him so fast?" asked Hinata. Naruto made a foxy grin and put his hands behind his head.

"That was just a small part of my training that I did with pervy sage! Pretty cool huh!" bragged Naruto. Hinata smiled big for him and nodded. She was so glad to Naruto so happy and energized (not that he ever did run out of energy in the first place). She just wished she could be a little more like him. After meeting up, Naruto's opponent had slowly woken up and tried to get up and away from Naruto who had destroyed him. Naruto looked behind him as the man struggled to get up. Naruto went over and kicked the man one last time in the gut. The man on the ground curled up and winced in pain, clenching his stomach. After that, Hinata and Naruto's gathered the two men together and tied them up tight to a tree trunk.

"Okay, start talking you! Who sent you after us? Why? and Who are you?" asked Naruto. The man Naruto was fighting was the leader of the two, but refused to say anything. Naruto looked at him with a deathly glare striking a great deal of fear into the shinobi's soul. "Are you sure you want to say nothing at all? Because I'm pretty sure-" Naruto grabbed the man by his front collar with a clenched fist and gained even more eye contact. Naruto continued "-That I can make you say something!" When the man didn't say anything at first, Naruto drew a fist and positioned it for a hard punch. Just when Naruto's was about to whale on the guy, the man shrieked.

"P-Please S-Stop! H-Have mercy!" said the man tied to a trunk. Naruto's stopped the punch and placed his hands on his hips and looked down at the man.

"All right then! I won't have to hurt you if you tell me what's going on here!" said Naruto's. The man looked up at Naruto's again and saw the same scary glare in Naruto's eyes. He looked back down out of cowardice and explained.

"W-We were sent here by our boss, Shimon Kamizuki. He heard that someone had sent a request for shinobi help from the village hidden in the leaves. He said that the two of us alone could probably handle it so that's why we're here. He didn't say why he wanted us to stop you. All that matters to me and my partner is that we get paid." said the man.

"Shimon Kamizuki, got it. And tell me does your boss know anything about a scroll called the Sacred Scroll of Dragons?" asked Naruto's. This time the other guy answered with a rough voice.

"Not that we know of." he said. the other guy spoke again after his partner.

"There we've told you all that we know! Now let us go!" said the man.

"Not so fast! You didn't answer my last question: who are you guys?" asked Naruto's. The guy with the black hair and glasses spoke.

"I'm Daisuke, and my partner is Temujin." he said. Both of them nodding in to confirm. As soon as Naruto's got his answer, Naruto's had started to pick up his stuff that had fallen during the battle. The men looked down in disappointment and dishonor. Hinata came up to the men tied to the tree and set down a small package next to them After setting it next to them, Hinata kneeled down and smiled.

"We're sorry for hurting you! Here, this is some special healing ointment I made. When you get untied, use that to help with your injuries. Okay?" she said. The two partners looked confused and then spoke.

"What kind of shinobi would help out the enemy?" asked one of them. Hinata smiled and started walking away to meet up with Naruto's.

"The kind of shinobi that can tell a good person from a bad person. Clearly, I can tell that you never intended to kill us. Plus, this was your job! I'm sure you'll make the right choice next time!" said Hinata waving goodbye. Naruto's saw what Hinata had done and smiled at her as she came to join him. Walking side by side, Naruto's spoke to her.

"That sure was nice. Are you sure it was a good idea though?" asked Naruto "It's like that one guy said: 'Why help out the enemy?'" Hinata looked back at the partners who watched them walk away and smiled back at Naruto.

"They're only about as old as us, Naruto. They got caught up in a gang or something and they were getting paid to attack us. Plus, if you can see people the way I do you can just tell who's good or bad. They were just... confused." said Hinata. Naruto seemed amazed at first, but then smiled really wide at Hinata and turned back to face the road.

"You know Hinata, that's one of the reasons why I think you're a fantastic person." said Naruto. Hinata smiled as Naruto smiled at her again. "You really are something special, Hinata." Hinata's face turned pinkish red again and smiled shyly at Naruto.

"Th-Thank you... Naruto." said Hinata as they continued to walk away from the stranded shinobi.

Back at the tree, the shinobi that were tied up at the tree, they were silent for awhile.

"Hey, Temujin. Do you think that one girl really believes that we're good people? I mean, how can she be nice to us when we tried to kill her?" asked Daisuke.

"I don't know. Wait- you were trying to kill her?" asked Temujin.

"W-Well no. The boss didn't say we had to kill them so I didn't try anything like that. Were you?" asked Daisuke.

"Of corse not! The boss said that we just needed to stop them, remember? We just need to follow his orders and nothing bad would happen." said Temujin.

"Yeah." said Daisuke. There was a silence as the wind blew slowly through the trees.

"So Daisuke... that girl was pretty cute, wasn't she?" asked Temujin. Daisuke smiled and nodded.

"Ooooh yeeeah. She was a tooootal hottie!" said Daisuke. The two laughed some and just stared at the sky for a while, tied and stuck to a tree.

"You know... I think that girl was right. We aren't bad people. We're just involved with people that are making us do bad things." said Daisuke. "So let's make a good people decision now. Let's quit the organization." Daisuke looked at his friend as they both nodded.

"Yeah... let's quit." said Temujin. At that, the two partners worked their way out of the trap and freed themselves. Before they left the premises, Daisuke grabbed the ointment Hinata had left behind and followed his partner.

Peacemaker01: I know, I know, shame on me! I copied Temujin to be a character sort of like Ginji from the anime: "Get Backers". Please forgive me, but he is just one of my favorite characters. This is the only time I'll do something like this, I usually make everything in a story by myself.


	3. Chapter 3: Talking with Hinata

Chapter 3

Talking with Hinata

"Wow Hinata! You took out that guy without even breaking a sweat! That was totally awesome!" said nartuo. He was still hyped from the battle that was earlier on in the morning. Hinata blushed a little and gave a small smile.

"Thank you... Naruto. But I think you were far more impressive; using shadow clones as a distraction and being able to move behind the enemy so fast like that was amazing too." said Hinata. Naruto smiled and continued walking by the road with Hinata.

"N-Naruto?" asked Hinata in an unsteady voice.

"Hm? What;s up?"

"I have been meaning to ask a question I have... do you mind?" asked Hinata. Naruto nodded. "Why... why do so many people not like you in the village?" asked Hinata. naruto looked at her with extreme surprise and then put on a serious look.

"Why would you want to know that? he asked. Hinata's breath started to shorten and she bgena to feel embarrassed for asking. It was too late for her to stop now though.

"I-it's just that... I can't think of a reason for people to not like you Naruto. You haven't done anything to hurt anyone, and all you did was pull a few major or minor pranks on the village. So i'm just wondering why so many don't like you?" said Hinata. Naruto was silent for a second and then responded.

"I'm glad you wnat to know why Hinata, but the thing is, I can't tell you. Its supposed to be a village law that no one can know the truth. But I promise Hinata, if the day or time should come when the truth may be known, I will come to everyone and tell them my story." said Naruto, who finished off his statement with a big foxy smile. Hinata's heart melted on the inside. Everytime Naruto sent her his signature grin, Hinata remembered just how much she actually loved him.

"Okay... I understand." said Hinata.

"No need to worry! I never go back on my word. That's my nindo: my ninja way!" said Naruto as a classic catch phrase he used to use as a little kid makeing Hinata laugh. It was a that time that Hinata remembered her own ninja way which was the same as Naruto's. Back at the chunin exam when she was fighting Neji, Naruto pep-talked her from the sidelines and gave her what she needed to face Neji with courage. Since Naruto gave her courage, she took his ninja way and hade it her own. It was all thanks to naruto that she was becoming such a splendid ninja of the village hidden in the leaves. As they continued walking down the road, Hinata and Naruto talked a lot more than before. They talked about music, training, friends, dreams for the furure, foods, places to travel, the list soon became endless between them.

Naruto's favorite music had turned out to be rockn' roll, which was something new he experienced with pervy sage while he was away from the village for three years. He liked it because it was wild and gave him something good to work with while training. Hinata's favorite music was anything having to do with love because she liked the message that most love songs came with.

Naruto had no family, but he still considered Sakura,Kakashi, Iruka, the pervy sage, and Tsunade parts of his family. Sasuke however... Naruto no longer knew what to think. Of course his dream to become Hokage, but Hinata wanted to get in depth with understanding why. He wanted to become hokage so that people would acknowledge him and respect him like he always wanted. He would be the strongest ninja in the land of fire and do his part in the world of ninjas. Hinata could only smile at Naruto's never ending confidence.

"There isn't a doubt in my heart Naruto that you will become hokage someday." said Hinata as Naruto finished his miniature monologue as to say he wanted to become Hokage. Naruto smiled at her big again.

"You think so?" he asked.

"I know so. SO don't give up, okay?" said Hinata. Naruto nodded and smiled again for Hinata.

"No one has ever believed in me like Hinata has. I guess that's one reason why she's one of my dearest friends." thought Naruto as they continued to walk the road together.

Hinata didn't have any really big plans for the future. All she wanted to do was work hard to become a jonin and take on a squad as a sensei. Naruto was glad that she wanted to work hard and become a jonin. As they continued to talking, Naruto ased a question that was very interesting.

"Hey Hinata, what's your favorite food?" Naruto asked. hinata thought about it for a second or two and made a decision.

"Well... if I had to choose, I guess it would be... ramen?" Hinata looked at Naruto to her left to see him with a surprised look.

"No way! You're serious?" said Naruto. "That's my favorite too!" he said with amazement.

"Every once and awhile I go down to Ichiraku to try out some new ideas they have. They said that besides Naruto, I'm their favorite customer!" said Hinata with a bit of a laugh. Naruot laughed along with her. He was glad she and her had more in common than he thought. They continued walking until the sun had gone below the horizon and the night sky had turned blackish-blue with thousands of stars overhead. Once it got late, Naruto stopped and laid his stuff down by a tree trunk that was close by a small river. He turned to Hinata and smiled.

"We sure did travel far and long today, so what do you say we set up camp now?" said Naruto. Together, Hinata and Naruto laid their stuff out, set up the tent and gathered some firewood and started a fire. As the fire burned brightly in the night Naruto and Hinata layed down next to eachother in the cool green grass and just watched the stars together.

"I really love the stars Naruto. They're so interesting to watch even though they don't do anything." said Hinata smiling at they sky.

"Yeah... I think so too. They're so mysterious when you think about it. Plus they're really pretty." said Naruto watching the stars with her. naruto turned to look at hinata to his right and smiled kindly at her. Hinata noticed the smiled and turned to look him in the face. At that moment, for a split second, Naruto felt something... he couldn't describe it, but he liked it. He turned his head away and looked at the sky again with his hands behind his head as support like a pillow.

"You know what Hinata?" said Naruto. Hinata hadn't turned away from seeing Naruto. For once, swhe wanted to be brave and not break contact with him.

"Yes? Naruto?" she said in reponse. Naruto turned his head again and smiled at Hinata.

"I've never really talked to you like this before. Just talking and getting to know you like this, it just seems to me that you're like a different person now or I never really took the chance to know you. ANd if it's my fault that I didn't take the time to get to know you... I should appoligize to you for that." he flipped over on his side to get a better view of Hinata.

"You're just so awesome to talk to. I feel like I can talk to you about anything. You're so nice and understanding and it turns out that we get along much better than we usually do. I'm really glad that you're my partner on this mission." said Naruto. Hinata was blushing really red now, but her eye contact with Naruto didn't break like it usually did. She waned to be bold and look Naruto in the face. She joped that if she did, something would happen between her and the love of her life.

"Y-You're glad I came on this m-mission with y-you?" she asked amazed.

"Of course! That's what I just said right?" said Naruto. Hinata's blush faded a bit as she looked away from Naruto.

"I just thought that... you probably would have been happier going on this mission with Sakura..." said Hinata. Naruto looked at her with a little surprise and embarressment.

"What do you mean by that!?" said Naruto. Hinata looked away with a blush returning.

"N-Nothing!" said Hinata. "I-I guess I was just thinking that since you... feel a certain way about Sakura, you might have liked it better if you and her were on the mission together." said hinata in a voice that was almost inaudible. Naruto sat up from his resting place and moved closer to Hinata.

"How come you know about that?" asked Naruto looking at Hinata and thinking she was acting suspicious.

"N-No reason! S-Sorry!..." said Hinata as her blush became redder and her voice became softer. Naruto gave a small chuckle at the look of Hinata

"Hinata... I would have been glad that Sakura came instead of you, but when I think about it, she probably would have socked me at least ten times on the head already, and get made at me at least twenty five times right now." said Naruto. "But when I'm with you, I feel really happy and safe when I talk to you. I know, with out a doubt that you would never hurt me like Sakura would." said naruto. Hinata's blush softened a bit as she turned to Naruto as he was sitting up looking down at her on the ground.

"Y-You really mean it?" asked Hinata. Naruto laughed. Her question was so silly and stupid, Naruto culdn't help but laugh.

"Of course I mean it! Hinata, don't you know me and trust me at all?" asked Naruto smiling and laughing still. As Hinata watched Naruto laugh with his cheerful face and big grin, she began to laugh too, for a reason unknown to herself or anyone else. They laughed together, and to Hinata's delight, gotten much closer. Once the laughter died down, they layed back on the grass together and looked at the stars some more. As they both looked, a very bright shooting star shot through the sky just for them. With the sky lit up by the shooting star, He looked at Hinata who was looking at the star as it slowly went through the sky. Her eyes were truely beautiful. Not a white color like he thought, but instead a very pale and pure lavender color.

"W-Wow! I never noticed Hinata's eyes..." thought Naruto. ONce the shooting star had passed them, Hinata looked at Naruto who was starring at her with a slight blush.

"N-Naruto?" she asked. Naruto shook his head and smiled big.

"It's late... I think we should get some rest now." he said. He stood up and held a hand out to Hinata as she took it while blushing a bit and pulled her up with him. As they stood together by the fire, they stood for a second joint hand in hand.

"N-Naruto..." said Hinata. Naruto looked at their hands and let go immediately and reached to scratch behind his head.

"He he he... sorry about that! It was an accident!" said Naruto. Hinata smiled and headed over to the tent.

"I'm changing now Naruto... so stay out!" she said. Naruto nodded and went over to the tree where his stuff lay and took out his sleeping clothes and hightcap and went to go change in the forest. Once he finished changing and taking a pee as an added bonus, he went inside the tent and climbed into his sleeping bag. But before he got in, he looked to Hinata who was smiling and blushing in her sleep. Naruto smiled and came inside the tent to makesure everything was alright. Looking at Hinata, he smiled and used a light finger to stroke away a strand of hair that was on Hinata's face to move it out of the way. After that, he stopped and froze.

"What the heck am I doing? It's just Hinata, besides I have to remember that my real feelings are for Sakura!" thought Naruto. He went back to his sleeping bac and got inside. He looked over at Hinata one last time, then fell asleep. "But I got to say, Hinata sure is a lot prettier than I remember her being."


	4. Chapter 4: The Bloody Battle

Chapter 4

Travel Day #2: The bloody battle

The morning that followed last night couldn't have been more peaceful. The sun was just beginning to peak over the distant mountain tops, the birds sang through the trees, it was slightly cold outside with a gentle breeze, and the soft trickling of water through in the river was next to their campsite. It was a very peaceful morning. Hinata woke up from her slumber, yawned and stretched high in the air. She looked to her right to find Naurto's sleeping bag empty. She worried at first but her attention was drawn to the outside where she heard Naruto shout. Hinata let out a sigh of relief, he probably just got up earlier than she did. Hinata walked slowly out of the orange tent and took another long stretch to wake herself up.

Outside the tent, she went over to the river and saw Naruto's clothes were just laying on the ground by the bank. Hinata looked in the river to see if she could find Naruto. After a minute or two of searching, Naruto appeared out of the river. His body was wet with water and glimmered from the light of the sun making his body and muscles seem more defined. The sight of Naruto's body with out a shirt on made Hinata's face turn red instantly. She went back to her tent to cool down, and after taking a few deepbreaths, she went back outside. She looked for Naruto again and found him coming up from the riverbank with his shirt off, pants on and carrying his shirt over his shoulder with one hand. He was waving at Hinata with the other free hand and smiled big.

"Hey Hinata! Beautiful morning right!" asked Naruto. Hinata smiled and waved back while her blush grew stronger and stronger. She began walking towards him and just when she was about four feet away from him, she tripped over a rock and began falling towards the ground.

_"Oh no!"_ thought Hinata. Just when she was about to hit the ground, Naruto caught her and pulled her back up so that it appeared she fell against his bare chest. With this close physical contact and Naruto's shirt off at the same time, Hinata fainted the moment she looked into his deep blue eyes.

"Hinata! Hinata! Are you okay!" said Naruto as she fell limp in his arms. "My face is going to be red for the rest of the day... how embarrassing." she thought. Naruto picked her up bridal style and set her down by the tent to try and wake her up.

"Hinata! Please wake up! C'mon!" said Naruto loudly. Sadly there was no response. Naruto sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"What do I do! Is she sick or something?" asked Naruto. Hinata's eyes twitched and opened slowly to see Naruto worrying over her and her blush was still on her face. Naruto had seen Hinata had woken up and smiled at her.

"Hinata! Are you okay! What happened!" asked Naruto sounding concerned. Naruto put a hand on her forehead to check her temperature. "Do you have a temperature or something!" asked Naruto. Hinata pulled his hand away from her forehead and shook her head. She stood up and brushed her self off from sitting on the ground.

"I-I'm fine Naruto. S-Sometimes I-I just fall over like that... s-sorry I'm so clumsy..." she said blushing with embarrassment. Naruto sighed.

"It's okay. You just really scared me! When I thought that you collapsed like that I thought you were sick or something!" said Naruto. Hinata kindly smiled at Naruto and nodded her head.

"S-Sorry. It won't happen again." said Hinata. They both walked over to the unlit fire as Hinata went and got a towel for Naruto. She threw it over his head and let him dry off.

"So you were swimming?" she asked. Naruto nodded.

"Yep! Whenever I go out for a mission lasting more than one day, swimming in a lake or river nearby camp is a good morning workout!" said Naruto. Hinata nodded and smiled.

"I'm glad you're a morning person too. I just love a bright sunny morning." said Hinata smiling. Naruto nodded with a smile as bright and cheerful as the sun.

"Did you sleep okay?" asked Naruto. Hinata nodded.

"I slept fine." said Hinata. When Naruto finsihed drying himself off, he hung the towel over his shoulder l and went back to the pot over the fire.

"I'm making breakfast for right now. Why don't you get ready to get moving again... okay?" said Naruto. Hinata nodded, smiled gently at Naruto and went into the tent to go and change back into her traveling clothes.

When she came back out, Naruto was eating out of the pot already while there was a bowl of instant ramen next to Naruto. Hinata came over and Naruto kindly handed her the bowl and chopsticks.

"Eat up, once we finish we're hitting the road." said Naruto.

"Okay." she said and began slurping the noddles just as loud as Naruto. They finished in about eight minutes, packed up all their equipment and continued traveling to the land of lightning. They traveled long and for most of the day talking and enjoying the road together. But when the sun began to sink, there was a rustle in the bushes from where Hinata and Naruto were traveling. Naruto had a kunai knife ready and quickly got back to back with Hinata. Her Byankugan was already activated and she was in her gentle fist stance already. They watched from all around ready to attack.

"Hey Hinata," whispered Naruto. "you can sense them too... can't you?" he asked. Hinata nodded in response.

"Yeah... I can see them too." she said looking everywhere with her Byankugan.

"Great, how many are there?" asked Naruto. Hinata made a quick count.

"About twenty or twenty three of them, all armed with some sort of weapon." said Hinata. Naruto smirked and continued to wait. Then from out of one of the bushes, a kunai with a nylon string attached to it came flying out towards Hinata and Naruto. They parted to dodge the attack and resume their fighting stances. Where Naruto had moved away he suddenly jumped backwards too. There was a net trap set underneath the ground and Naruto avoided it as it closed up. Then from behind, a man with a large brown cape that covered his body came out with a large metal spiked club and slammed it into Naruto's back.

"GAAAA!" said Naruto. The man laughed as Naruto went flying away from him. Then the man who just hit Naruto whistled loud as a signal for everyone hiding in the surrounding area to come out and fight. Naruto got up slowly but found ten or thirteen men coming at him while he was still on the ground. He quickly jumped up high, did a mid-air back flip while drawing shuriken and threw as many as he could while still air-borne and faced upright. Most of the shuriken hit the men in the head or somewhere else vulnerable, but some of the men blocked the shuriken and continued on their way towards Naruto. Naruto landed on the ground and made a hand sign. Then, about fifteen other clones of Naruto showed up by his side and headed towards the men to attack them. The men Naruto's clones were attacking were decimated in a minute or two after the men were defeated, Naruto looked to Hinata.

She was facing off five men at once using her Byankugan and gentle fist technique she soon made all of the men she was fighting either paralyzed or unable to use their chakra. When about three men were to attack Hinata from behind, Hinata turned around and got two of them in the chest, but the one she didn't get, took a kunai and stabbed it in her blind spot. Dark crimson blood shed on Hinata's jacket from her wound and hinata screamed in pain.

"AAAAAAH!" she screamed. She was hit right in her vital spot which made it impossible for her to see anything coming. Naruto saw the attack and headed over towards Hinata screaming.

"HINATAAA!" yelled Naruto. Hinata did her best to recover from the attack and jabbed the man that hit her twice; once in the jaw, the next in the chest. That man was then either dead, or completely lost the will to fight. As Naruto drew closer to Hinata, a man appeared in front of Naruto and hit him with a club similar to the one before. It wasn't as big, but had even bigger and more metal spikes than the first. Naruto was thrown back again from the hit. Even though it was showing through his jacket a whole lot, Naruto could feel blood seeping out of his back and stomach from the two hits. As he was flying back, three other men caught Naruto, threw him on the ground, and began to kick and stomp on his while taking advantage of the pain he felt already.

Hinata saw what they were doing to him and she began to cry. Naruto was getting the shit kicked and punched out of him by these merciless men; he was all bloody in the face with bruises and marks everywhere. Naruto, for one, had had enough. He powered through a few more stomps and kicks, then jumped up high and did another back flip while making a shadow clone appear in midair. There was enough distance between him and his opponents now, so Naruto and his clone began to form something in their hands using their chakra.

"Hinata! Get away! Quickly!" yelled Naruto assuming that Hinata could move at all. Hinata was crying, but did as she was told and got out of range and took cover. As all the men continued to charge at Naruto, he and his clone held in their hands a Rasengan a little bit bigger than a basket ball. Naruto charged against the rest of the men with his Rasengan shouting.

"OODAMA RASENGAAAAN!" he said as the attack hit the first man and grew bigger and bigger and then finally exploded with a very large blue and white blast of energy. The explosion caused by the Rasengan left a crater of about a one hundred meter radius. All the rest of the men were caught in the explosion were either dead or severely injured, most of them were dead. Hinata saw the explosion and sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her to the explosion site. When she arrived, she saw Naruto barely standing in the middle of the crater holding a bloody arm by the shoulder and breathing heavily. He looked and saw Hinata coming towards him, crying and running. Hinata finally reached him and he slowly fell into Hinata's arms as she caught him.

"D-Did those guys hurt you... Hinata?" asked Naruto. Hinata was still crying but just barely smiled.

"Me?... What about you! You're covered in-" Hinata was stopped when Naruto held a bloody hand up to her cheek and gently rubbed it.

"I-I'm just glad to see... that you're doing okay... Hinata." said Naruto. He slowly lost consciousness and his hand dropped from Hinata's face. She was crying even more now and held Naruto's hand dearly to her chest. SHe then cried out to the heavens as it slowly began to turn gray in the skies.

"SOMEBODY HELP UUUUUS!" she screamed. She was crying and held Naruto's chest closer to her ear. The heartbeat was amazingly strong and steady even after so many critical blows. She couldn't understand it, but Naruto was in no danger of loosing his life. Hinata still cried but did her best to suck it up and try to move Naruto, but he was just too heavy for her to move. She knew that if it started raining, Naruto probably would catch a fever and the last thing they needed was a sick ninja during a mission. As she struggled in vain to move Naruto, two ninja showed up behind Hinata. one of them picked up Naruto and the other tapped Hinata on the shoulder. She looked at the ninja behind her and her eyes widened with surprise.

"Y-You!..." she said. The ninja picked Hinata up bridal style and started jumping away from the explosion sight with his partner carrying Naruto and following right behind him.


	5. Chapter 5: The Hospital and the Storm

Chapter 5

Travel Day #2 (continued): the Hosplital and the Storm

Hinata woke up in a warm, dimly lit room. She slowly sat up in her bed and looked around. It was a comforting room and had a window, a lamp, and adresser with a mirror. hinata looked next to the dresser and found that her stuff that was carrying clothes and food were untouched. She couldn't remember what happened at first, but then it started to come back to her. She could see it in her mind, the sight of a bloody Naruto after a ghue fight and then two ninja arriving to come and save her and Naruto. The only question was... where the heck was she?

"N-Naruto?" she said quietly. She looked around the room to see if she could find Naruto, but it was just her in there. Hinata remembered the sight of Naruto limp in her arms and the blood that was flowing out of his body. She began to cry again into her knees. "N-Naruto... are... are you..." she couldn't even think it. She slowly got out of bed with a wet face but winced when she got out and tried to stand. She looked herself over her shirt and jacket were off and she was bandaged all over. She couldn't believe that she took this much damage in her fight last night. She walked to the dresser, didn't care about putting on a shirt and just went with a jacket. She opened the door and slowly looked in the hallway. It was a white hallway with florescent lights along the ceiling and people in white outfits coming and leaving out of rooms.

"Hey! Glad to see your awake! are you feeling any better?" said a voice. But Hinata recognized the voice, so she turned around to see his face. It was one of the ninja Hinata and Naruto had faced on their first day of traveling together. The ninja that they tied up to a tree. Hinata smiled and went over to him.

"Oh my gosh! You're that guy we tied up!" said Hinata. The man nodded.

"Yup. I'll fill you in on everything later, but right right now, why don't we go see my partner? He's with your friend right now." said the man known as Daisuke. Hinata looked shocked with her mouth open and then spoke.

"Naruto! He's alive! Where is he!" asked Hinata. She was tremendously scared when she didn't know where Naruto was and when she thought he was dead.

"Calm down! I'll take you to him right away." said Daisuke. He urged her to follow him and led her down the hall to where Naruto was. "We haven't even been properly introduced yet. My name is Daisuke Ichiro." said Daisuke.

"I'm Hinata Hyuga. It's nice to meet you." she said. Daisuke led her down the hallway about ten more rooms and 1 opened the door for her. This room was much bigger than the other one Hinata was in and it was much better lit as well. As she walked in to room, she saw Naruto in the middle of it with five nurses working on bandaging him up. He was bandaged up far more than Hinata, and he wasn't even finsied yet. He looked up and saw Hinata in the door way, looked like she was about to cry. He smiled at her warmly.

"Hey... Hinata." he said. Hinata put her hands to her mouth and she ran over to Naruto and tackled him with a hug.

"OH NARUTO!" she said as she hugged him close to her chest. naruto fell backwards when Hinata hugged him and yelped in pain. Hinata ignored it and instead hugged him tighter and cried like a water fall. Naruto hugged her back as well.

"Wow, and to think that you were this worried about me... he he..." said Naruto. Hinata stopeed hugging and looked at Naruto's face with a blush on her cheeks and tears still running down her face.

"Of course I was worried about you! I thought that you were..." was all she said as her voice trailed off and her gaze drifted away from Naruto. Naruto nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

"You should know me Hinata! I always seem to pull through in the end! Besides its just us two on a mission; there's no way I'm dying on ya!" said Naruto with a chuckle afterwards. Hinata nodded and hugged Naruto around his neck. As the scene continued in the room, the other ninja Temujin walked in with a drink. Daisuke looked at him and made a surprised look that quickly turned angry. Temujin only smiled.

"What the heck do you think you're doing! You were supposed to stay and watch over blondy here!" yelled daisuke pointing at Naruto. Temujin shrugged and took a sip of his drink.

"I needed a drink from the vending machine, I just left for a few minutes anyway. Besides the dude had nurses watching over him." said Temujin with out a care in the world.

"That's comepletly missing the point, you IDIOT!" said Daisuke. Temujin shrugged it off then tipped his drink to his friend.

"Want one? I can get you one if you ask nicely!" he said smiling.

"Like I said: I-DI-OT!" said Daisuke. Temujin took his drink back and sipped from it again.

"Okay, no drink for you." he siad. Are you even listening to me? Hey Temujin!" and they continued to bicker for a little while longer and then went back to Naruot and HInata who were stil hugging and worried about eachother. Once everything settled down, Daisuke and Temujin got Naruto and Hinata's attention to explain the situation.

"Well since everything seems to be a whole lot better now, Temujin and I shall explain the situation." said Daisuke. Temujin went first.

"Last night, my partner and I were traveling from town to town to try and make a better living by doing something good with our we were traveling, we saw and heard a large explosion that was the at least threehundred feet away from us. We went over to the explosion sight and found both you and Hinata in the middle of it." Temujin finished and let Daisuke explain the rest.

"When we found you, Temujin and I carried you guys with us as fast as we could to the next town which just so happened to have a hospital. We took you guys here and got Naruto immediate treatment when we arrived." said Daisuke. That was the basic 411 on the subject and Naruto smiled.

"Thanks alot you guys! You're real life savers!" said Naruto.

"No problem. Plus," saud Tenujin as he got up. He went over to HInata and got down on one knee and held her hand in both of his hands. "we got to see you again Hinata. You were so kind to us, we just had to repay the favor!" said Temujin. Hinata forced a smile at Temujin as he held her hand. This made Naruto's eyes fill with a raging fire of jealousy and rage. He didn't like the fact that Temujin was being so nice to Hinata.

"Cut it out Temujin! Like you'd ever have a chance with her!" said Daisuke. Temujin looked back at Daisuke, but then was pushed out of the way and Daisuke took Temujin's position. "I mean let's be honest, He's no where near as attractive as me, right Hinata?" said Daisuke. Temujin glared at Daisuke and Daisuke glared back. A second later Temujin and daisuke were fighting it out over Hinata. Naruto's face had turned red with burning hot jealousy while Hinata on the other hand was blushing from all the flattery.

"Okay that's quite enough now. This patient needs some rest, and he can't get that if there are too many people in here. I'm afraid that I'm going to need to ask you to leave." said a nurse. Temujin and Daisuke headed out of the room first, but Hinata was the most reluctant to leave.

"Go ahead Hinata... I'll be alright... I promise." said Naruto. Hinata believed him but was still unsure. She was escorted out of the room and Hinata spent some time with Daisuke and Temujin as she waited to see Naruto again. At dinner time, Hinata and Naruto ate together in Naruto's room.

"I was worried about you Hinata. I was scared that were injured really bad or worse! But I guess this just shows how tough you really are huh!" said Naruto jokingly with a grin. Hinata swallowed some more food and smiled.

"I was worried about you too Naruto. You were in a far worse shape than I was." said Hinata.

"Yeah, well you know how quickly I heal." said Naruto with pride. Hinata could see herself that most of the scratches and scrapes on Naruto's body were already slmost fully healed. Just when Hinata was about to say something else, there was a knock at the door. A nurse popped her head in and smiled.

"Sorry to interupt, but you need to go miss. It's lights out now and I need to finish up bandaging the patient." said the nurse. Hinata nodded and got up from the table in Naruto's room.

"Okay then, I'll see you tomorrow Naruto." said Hinata waving goodbye. Naruot waved goodbye as well and Hinata left the room. The nurse came in and took a few bandages, some ointment and started applying .

"So that girl, her name is Hinata right?" said the nurse.

"Yeah, what about her?" asked Naruto. The nurse smied and continued.

"I saw how you and her embraced eachother like that earlier today. You and her seem to be really good friends." she said with facination.

"Yup! We go way back!"

"But I have never seen just friends hug like that before or look at eachother like you and that girl do." said the Nurse. She looked over Naruto's shoulder and at his face to make eye contact. "Care to explain?" she said.

On the way back to her room, Hinata stopped and turned back. "Oh I forgot, I need to talk to Naruto about travel plans for tomorrow." thought Hinata. With that, she went back to Naruto's room to talk. When she made it back to his room, the door was slightly open and Hinata could hear voices on the inside, Naruto's voice and the nurse's voice. Instead of opening the door all the way, Hinata froze and listened.

"But I have never seen just friends hug like that before or look at eachother like you and that girl do." said the Nurse. She looked over Naruto's shoulder and at his face to make eye contact. "Care to explain?" she said. Hinata braced herself.

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"Do you like that girl or not?" asked the nurse. Hinata wasited patiently, she hoped she could hear what came next over the beating of her heart.

"W-What! Well... I-I mean, see there's this girl back home... that I have loved for most of my life." said Naruto. Hinata felt like her heart had broke and that feeling of despair filled her again. "However," said Naruto. Hinata listened up some more. "I mean its not that I don't think about Hinata that way...sometimes. It's just that..." said Naruto. Hinata's heart was about to burst out of her chest. The nurse was looking at him with a pout and then smiled devilishly.

"Obviously I can see that you are confused about your feelings right now, so..." said the nurse as she came in front of Naruto and began loosening her jacket. "Just let me take care of all your problems for you. You just let me melt away your confusion. Don't worry... I'm a nurse." said the nurse while licking her lips. A red light went off in Naruto's head and he tried backing away.

"W-What! I'm really falttered and all but get the hell away from me! I'm saving myself for later!" said Naruto. The nurse giggled and tried climbing on top of him.

"Now now, hold still..." she said. She cupped Naruto's face and inched in closer for impact.

"W-What are you doing! Stooooop!" yelled Hinata as she burst through the door with a blood red face as she saw the nurse on top of Naruto. The nurse looked suprised as Naruto backed away out from under her and inched away. "Get out of here! NOW!" yelled Hinata. The nurse got out as quick as she could, running away horified. Hinata turned to Naruto who was blushing uncontrolably.

"What is that bitch's problem! She was just supposed to bandage me up, not try to rape me!" yelled Naruto. He seemed scarred for life. Hinata came over and sat by him on the floor still blushing.

"Are you okay? She didn't... she didn't touch you, did she?" asked Hinata not looking him in the eye. Naruto's blush began to fade and he looked at Hinata with a big foxy grin.

"She was close but she didn't. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to get out of that. Thanks a lot Hinata!" said Naruto. Hinata smiled and nodded at him. Naruto scratched his head and looked away.

"So... uh... were you just coming to see me or were you outside the entire time?" asked Naruto. Hinata blushed and looked away.

"W-Well... I sort of was there the entire time..." said Hinata as her face grew cherry red and her voice trailed off. Naruto's cheeks turned pink and he looked away.

"D-Did you hear... anything?" asked Naruto. Hinata blush and nodded a little bit. Naruto's face grew red in an instant.

"Oh... I see..." said Naruto. Hinata got up and headed back to her room. At Naruto's room enterance Hinata stood with her back turned to him.

"Do you really... think that way about me?" asked Hinata. Naruto looked up with widened eyes.

"Huh? Oh, well... uh... y-yeah..." said Naruto. Hinata's face turned so red that she didn't look back at Naruto and just left his room without another word. Hinata walked back to her room, with her face keeping the same redness the entire way. Once inside her room, Hinata closed the door and went to sit on her bed.

"D-Did Naruto really say that...?" asked Hinata in her mind. She flipped over on her bed and grabbed her pillow and took a deep sigh. "W-What does this mean? D-Does it mean that he is actually... starting to feel the same way? But then again, N-Naruto said he still loves Sakura... s-so what does this leave me with?" asked Hinata to herself. No longer knowing about what to do, she drifted off to sleep in her dimly lit room.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Hinata rse from her slumber and looked around the room. It was completely dark, but by using her Byankugan she could see everything in her room. She wondered what time it was and sat up in her bed floding her knees together and laying her head on her knees. She was still feeling bad about how Naruto felt and the amount of confusion that was overwhelming her. Hinata looked to her door and nodded slowly. She rose from her bed and went to the door and opened the way into the hall. The only way for this problem to be resolved was to go talk to Naruto right now, otherwise, she won't be able to fall back to sleep for a while. When she made it to Naruto's room, Hinata slowly opened the door to peak at Naruto's bed. As she opened the door even wider, she saw that Naruto wasn't in his bed fast asleep, but looking out the windo up towards the night sky. Hinata came in the door and smiled at the sight of Naruto. Naruto noticed her in his room and smiled back at her. He used his hand to signal her to come and sit by him as the sky turned from the dark blue to a very dark gray. She sat down and smiled at Naruto.

"Hey, you couldn't sleep either huh?" asked Naruto. Hinata nodded and looked at the sky with him.

"Actually, I woke up because there was something I wanted to talk to you about." said Hinata. Naruto looked at her ready to listen.

"Is it about earlier yesterday? About the nurse?" asked Naruto still blushing from the sight of the woman who was trying to um... what's the word for it... oh right, f-k him. Hinata shook her head.

"No... not that... about what you said..." said Hinata as her cheeks began to burn. Naruto scratched the back of his head and looked away a bit.

"Oh... that. Well, I'm sorry if it offended you... or something like that..." said Naruto. Hinata whipped her head to Naruto and quickly shook it side to side.

"N-No that's not what I mean at all! In fact I f-feel the sa-" Hinata's words were interupted by the thunder of the clouds and the crash of the lightning as it whizzed through the air. Hinata looked to the sky and quickly jumped to Naruto for protection.

"WHAAAA!" she screamed. Hinata closed her eyes tight and held on to Naruto with all her might.

"W-What! Hinata? W-What's wrong?" asked Naruto. There was another flash and boom and Hinata just continued to shiver in Naruto's embrace. He looked out the window at the rain that was pattering away at the glass and then back at Hinata. "Oh I get it! I didn't know that you were afraid of thunder storms." said Naruto. Hinata held on tighter to Naruto as another flash and boom came from outside. Naruto did his best to pick Hinata up and carried her over to a wall that was far away from the window.

"W-What are you doing? P-Put me down!" said Hinata. Naruto just chuckled at her and set her down by the wall. Hinata's face burned red as she resumed her knee position next to the wall and looked away from Naruto. "Th-That was embarressing." said Hinata. Naruto laughed quietly and nodded. He sat down on the wall with Hinata and dragged a sheet with them and threw it over them.

"W-What? N-Naruto!" said Hinata getting more and more tired. Naruto just continued smiling as he put the blanket on top of them.

"Now we can talk. What were you saying?" asked Naruto. As he turned his head to look at her face, he realized that she was already asleep with her head on his shoulder. Naruto smiled and shrugged a little bit. "Oh well, goodnight Hinata." said Naruto as he laid his head on top of Hinata's head and fell asleep as the sound of Hinata breathing soothed him.


	6. Chapter 6: Village Hidden in the Clouds

Chapter 6

The Village Hidden in the Clouds

Hinata woke up lying against the wall feeling warm and snug inside the blanket Naruto had thrown on them the night before. She looked to her left and found Naruto was no longer there, but gone. She looked all around the room, stood up and walked to the window leading out of the room.

"Naruto?" she asked. She opened the blinds and let the sun's brilliant rays blast into the room and fill it with surreal light. The sun was just coming up over the mountains and the sky was yellow, blue, and pink with nice fluffy clouds. It was a moment to truly behold. Hinata turned around as she heard a person walk into the room. To her surprise, it was Naruto in a white bath towel wrapped around his waist with his shirt off.

"Oh! Hinata! You're awake!" said Naruto rubbing the back of his head. At the sight of Naruto standing before her, Hinata's face turned red like no other.

"N-Naruto!" she yelled as she covered her eyes with her hands and turned away from Naruto. Naruto didn't get it at first, but then looked down at the towel around his waist then he yelled himself.

"AAAAAH! Hi-Hinata! I-I'm sorry! This isn't what it looks like!" said Naruto waving both of his hands. Bad move. He let go of the towel and it fell to his ankles rather quickly. Hinata peaked through her hands and screeched again as she ran out of the room. Naruto picked up the towel and ran back into the bathroom in his room. Hinata hurried back to her room and shut the door as she went to lay down on her bed to try and calm herself down.

"O-Oh dear. That was so embarrassing!" she thought loud in her head. "I can't believe that happened!" her blush remained on her face as she removed her hands from her face and thought about the image that went through her head. As she continued to think, her blush became deeper and deeper. "No! No! I must remain pure! I must remain pure!" she continued to yell in her head as she shook her head from side to side to try and shake the image away.

About ten minutes later, Hinata came out of her room and slowly walked down the hallway to Naruto's room. At the door, Hinata knocked and said his name before entry. Hinata slowly opened the door and peaked inside. Inside, Naruto was taking off his bandages on his arms as he turned around and saw Hinata's head poked in from the door.

"H-Hinata!" shouted Naruto. Hinata came in, closed the door behind them and she sat down with her hands on her lap. "H-Hinata, I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, it was an accident! I swear!" said Naruto. Hinata blushed and nodded.

"I-I know it was an accident. It's okay." she said with a blush and a small smile. Hinata reached her hands out and took Naruto's bandaged arm and began taking the bandages off herself. "You really shouldn't be doing this by yourself; what happened to all the nurses that are supposed to be watching over you anyways?" asked Hinata. Naruto shrugged.

"Don't know." said Naruto. Hinata continued taking off the bandages in silence, trying to cope with the akward situation at hand. Once Hinata finished removing the bandages, she ran a hand down Naruto's buff arm, memorizing the feeling of his tight strong muscles and skin.

"Hinata?" asked Naruto wondering what she was doing. She jerked her hand away and blushed.

"S-Sorry!" she quickly stood up and Naruto followed her actions almost in sync. "I-I need to go back to my room and prepare to continue for our journey today. I'll meet you in the lobby later." she said rushing out of the room to avoid any more words with Naruto. Naruto reached a hand out to try and get her attention, but she was gone out of his reach.

"Ooooh..." said Naruto in a bit of disapointment. He went over to a closet in his room and pulled out a white tank-top and his black and orange jacket. "She's right. Time to get ready!" said Naruto.

About an hour or two later, Naruto and HInata met up in the lobby as they had planned and headed for the exit out of the hosplital. As they stood outside of it, Hinata nad Naruto bowed before a few nurses and Daisuke and Temujin who had come to say good-bye and see them off.

"Thank you again for helping us." said Hinata in a kind voice as she bowed. Daisuke and Temujin only blushed and smiled big at Hinata as she thanked them. After her, it was Naruto's turn. He came up to them and stuck out an open hand.

"I know that we started off on the wrong foot, but thanks a lot for the help yesterday." said Naruto smiling. "You guys are all right. Do both of us a favor and come visit us in the hidden leaf village. He took both of Temujin's and Daisuke's hands and continued smiling at the newly found friendship. They waved goodbye and left the hospital and the town happily and energized for their continued journey.

The next three days of travel were nothing but talk and good wheather for Naruto and Hinata. The Land of LIghtning took about five days time for a ninja to travel and it normally wasn't easy to get to in the first place. Thanks to the great company that Naruto and Hinata both shared, the travel wasn't long at all. On the fifth day of travel, Naruto and Hinata had finally crossed borders with the Fire Country and the Lightning Country.

Once in the Lightning Country, it only took about five hours to make it up the mountains to the Village Hidden in the Clouds, which was where their mission was to take place. The Land of Lightning was just about as prosperous as the hidden leaf village, and was home of the Raikage, the leader of the village. After a long trek up the mountains, Hinata and Naruto gazed at the breath-taking sight of the village houses and buildings built on the sides of the mountain peaks. After seeing this, Naruto and Hinata both realized that the Village Hidden in the Clouds was a name that had sense and meaning to it.

Hinata and Naruto continued from one mountain top to another leading to the Administration Building; home of the Raikage to recieve his word of approval and to begin the mission as soon as possible. At the front door of the Administration Building, Naruto showed the guards he and Hinata's legal ninja border passes and were aloud to speak with the Raikage. Naruto and Hinata bowed before speaking and waited for the Raikage to bow back. Then, Naruto and Hinata stood before him as Narto prepared to explain.

"Lord Raikgae, I have come here with a mission stating that a scroll known as the Sacred Scroll of Dragons is in danger of being stolen. My partner and I were sent to investigate the matter under the direction of Lady Tsunade: the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. With your permission, we would like to begin our investigation as soon as possible." said Naruto. Hinata remained quiet as she watched the scene. The Raikage got up out of his throne and came down to meet with Naruto. He was a buff dark skinned man with braids for hair going about half-neck length down the back of his head. He had large metal gloves on that were probably a weapon or something of his. He had a go-tee (?) and yellowish teeth. He had no shirt on, big black baggy pants, big black boots with buckles on them and to finish is all off, a big yellow cape that hung around his neck and the yellow raikage hat. It was the same as the Hokage's hate, but instead it was colored yellow and had the kanji of lightning on it. The man looked like he had been born with an angry face and spoke to Naruto.

"So you are the shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village that were sent here huh? A couple of snot-nosed kids? For a B-rank mission like that?" said the Raikage. The veins in Naruto's head were about to pop from Naruto restaining himself to remain respectfull while in the presence of the Raikage. "Well if this is what we got... then fine. Here's the situation, follow me." said the Raikage. Naruto and Hinata followed the man as he explained the upcoming mission.

"Recently, all my ninja are quite busy of late with so many mission going on, so I sent one of my ninja guards in disguise to your village to request back-up. I had him disguise himself because we didn't want the enemy to know that help is on the way. So that leads me to a question, were you followed, ambushed, or seen by anyone on your way here?" he asked. Naruto spoke.

"Yeah, sorry to dissapoint, but we did get ambushed twice. The first time was by a couple of ninja that were from your village. And the second time was just thugs in the numbers of about twenty." said Naruto. The Raikage cursed silently and led Naruto and Hinata into his office where he had a large map spread out over a large table.

"So you get any information from the ambushers, like who sent them?" asked the Raikage. Hinata answered at last.

"Yes. They gave us information on who they were working for." said Hinata. "It was a man named Shimon Kamizuki who sent them. Do you know him?" asked Hinata. Raikage looked surprised and looked at the map on the table. He pointed his finger to where they were in the Land of Lightning and dragged it over about three inches to the upper left.

"Shimon Kamizuki is a rogue ninja of the Land of Lightning. He is the master of a criminal organization called Sentokaida who's main focus is trying to over take our village." said Raikage.

"What!" exclaimed Naruto.

"There is no need to worry. He has absolutely no chance of even making it into our walls." said the Raikage. Naruto and Hinata seemed a little more relieved. "However, inside the Sacred Scroll of Dragons, there is a forbidden jutsu of unimaginable power that could easily give him the strength he needs to take us over." he said. Naruto and Hinata continued to listen. "Shimon recently sent a warning to me saying he was going to steal the Sacred Scroll of Dragons from the storage unit we have here in the Village Hidden in the Clouds. So I even set up about ten of my men to guard the scroll. But even so, I still fear whether or not my men can handle guarding it. I had my men send for help so that you could hopefully help in arresting this man and bringing him to justice." said the Raikage. Naruto spoke as he looked up from the map.

"What do you want us to do then?" asked Naruto. The Raikage gave Naruto a picture he had in his pocket. After seeing the picture, Naruto passed it on to Hinata who gave it back to the Raikage after she finished looking at it. It was a picture of a man in an expensive looking black suit. He had spiked red hair, square glasses hanging at the tip of his nose, and was missing a few teeth. He didn't seem very strong and was sort of looking away when the picture was taken.

"That man is Shimon Kamizuki. His hideout is right here." the Raikage pointed out the location on the map which was where his finger was previously. "For now, I want you on stand-by. I don't want you taking action until it's necessary. Is that understood?" said the Raikage. Naruto and Hinata both nodded as a jonin entered into the office and began to escort Hinata and Naruto out of the room. Before they left though, the Raikage stopped them.

"One last thing, since you will be staying here for a while, you will be aloud to stay in the guest room of this building. But since we're a little tight on space at the time with all the papers coming in and all, I'm afraid I only have one room for you to stay in, so make it work between the two of you." said Raikage. "Any questions?" he said. Naruto and Hinata left the Raikage's office and headed to their room which wasn't too far away from the storage unit of the Sacred Scroll they were authorized to protect.

"Wait... did the Raikage say that we only get one room?" asked Naruto. Hinata and Naruto both blushed and stayed silent for awhile.

"Sharing a room with Naruto? N-No! Does that mean only one mirror, one bathroom, one... bed?" thought Hinata. Oh how she wanted to sleep with Naruto in a real bed, but her father, her father would be totally outraged if he ever found out that she did what she thought about doing. In the room that was offered to them, the entire atmosphere was awkward between Naruto and Hinata. Naruto and Hinata slowly unpacked some of their things and took a breather on the couch in the living room. Thankfully, there was a t.v. in the room with channels on it to, so Naruto used it to break the unbearable silence. After watching for awhile, he looked to see Hinata was reading a book in a chair that wasn't far away from him.

"Hey Hinata." said Naruto. She looked up from her book with a blush on her cheeks and responded.

"Yes?" she asked. Naruto patted the cushion next to him.

"Come sit by me!" he said happily. Hinata wondered if this were really happening. Naruto wanted Hinata to come and sit by him and watch t.v. with him. Hinata slowly put her book down and walked over to Naruto on the couch and sat down by him.

"Okay." said Hinata uneasily. As she sat down, Naruto turned to talk to her.

"Doesn't this feel a little weird?" said Naruto rubbing the back of his head and giggling.

"Um... yeah. A little bit. But it's also kind of exciting. I never would have dreamed of coming to another village like this before. It's really amazing!" she said. Naruto nodded.

"Yup! It sure is something." said Naruto. Hinata nodded and looked back at the moving images on the t.v. The awkward silence had returned as Naruto and Hinata sat side by side on the couch. They both couldn't understand it. They both shared a room at the hospital for a night and didn't feel any different than normal, but now, they couldn't seem to shake the strange feeling.

Hinata looked to her right at Naruto who was uncomfortably watching the t.v. set and felt herself blush.

"Um... Hinata?" he asked. Hinata whipped her head to him and spoke.

"Yes? What is it?" asked Hinata. Naruto scratched his face with his index finger.

"Um... c-can I ask you a question?" he said. Hinata nodded

"O-Okay?"

"U-Um... well... I-I don't know how you'll feel about this, but what do ya say if we go out or something the night we return to the village? Y'know to celebrate?" asked Naruto. Hinata's heart stopped dead and she looked at Naruto with a blush so red, her face looked like it was about to burst.

"I... I..." said Hinata with her voice stopped and her mind drawing a blank. "C'mon you stupid idiot! Say yes! SAY YES!" Hinata screamed in her mind.

"Hinata? A-Are you feeling okay? I-I'm sorry, forget I even asked..." said Naruto scratching the back of his head with a goofy smile.

"N-No! I-I'd love to! I really would!" said Hinata desperately.

"R-Really! That's great!" said Naruto. Hinata smiled the biggest she had ever smiled in her entire life. After that, Hinata and Naruto no longer had any awkward silence between them the entire night. They watched t.v. and talked all night with out any other problems. By the time the clock had reached 12:00 am, Hinata and Naruto had both fallen asleep on the couch, with Hinata's head on Naruto's shoulder and Naruto's head laying on top of Hinata's.


	7. Chapter 7: The Stolen Scroll

Chapter 7

The Stolen Scroll

Hinata woke up still laying on Naruto's shoulder from the night before, blushing and feling warm inside. She slowly took her head away from her sleeping position and smiled at Naruto as he continued sleeping on the couch. She looked at Naruto's messy hair and felt like running her fingers through it and hugging him, but she knew better and used all of her strength to resist the temptation.

"I wonder what would happen if father found out that I slept with Naruto?... Well, its not that bad... I mean, it's not like we fell asleep or together in bed or anything like that... right?" thought Hinata. As she finished there was a loud pounding on the door. Hinata went over and opened it to find the Raikage at the door looking unhappy.

"YOU LITTLE KIDS CALL YOURSELF NINJA! LOOK AT YOU, SLEEPING ON THE COUCH LIKE THAT!" he yelled. Hinata had to plug her ears from the yelling but it didn't even wake up Naruto. he stormed into the bedroom and began to explain. "That devilish Shimon stole the scroll just this morning! He's probably already on his way back to his hideout." said Raikage. Hinata looked shocked and went over to where Naruto was still sleeping and tried to wake him. She shook him.

"Naruto... Naruto, wake up." said Hinata. Naruto growled in his sleep and flipped over on a side instead of waking up. As a last resort, Hinata put her hands on Naruto's back, and harshly pushed him off the couch and on to the floor hitting hard and waking up. He looked at Hinata as he awoke, and then at the Raikage that was standing in the room. He stood up immediately in military form trying to cover up for looking like an idiot and sleeping when the Raikage came in.

"Oh! Uh... good morning Lord Raikage." said Naruto in surprise. Hinata giggled and the Raikage only snorted at his slowness.

"Wake up you lazy ninja! How can you be sleeping when the Sacred Scroll of Dragons was recently stolen?" he said Naruto looked dumbfounded then exclaimed.

"IT WHAAAAAT!" yelled Naruto. He and Hinata got dress as fast as they could and followed the Raikage to the storage unit where the scroll was being held. When they had arrived about ten minutes later, the storage unit was a big building, or what was left of it. While it was being stolen, someone must've used one powerful jutsu to destroy most of the building. A guard came up to the Raikage as he approached and reported.

"Sir, we apologize for failing to protect the scroll, but it was Shimon himself. He's gotten a lot stronger, probably Jonin level now!" said the guard. The Raikage didn't respond but only looked over the damage that had been done. Many soldiers were wounded badly, but it didn't seem like anyone was killed from the attack. Thinking it over, the Raikage turned to Naruto and Hinata and spoke.

"Leaf Village ninja, you are effective in this mission as of now. If you're ready here's what you need to do. Shimon's hideout is three kilometers out of the village from the bottom of the mountains. He has a very large number of guards up there as henchmen, so it won't be neccessarily easy to infiltrate enemy ground. Once you get in though, all you have to do is find the scroll and bring it back here. You can do that right?" said the Raikage. Naruto proudly saluted in front of him and nodded.

"You can count on us sir." said Naruto. He turned to Hinata and smiled. "All right! the mission really begins now Hinata! Let's go back to the hotel and grab a few things before we go!" said Naruto. Hinata nodded and followed him back to the administration building. When there were back in their room, Naruto and Hinata stocked up on kunai, shuriken, medicine, and paper bombs just in case. When they were ready to go, they reported back to the Raikage.

"Sorry for the wait sir, we're ready now!" said Naruto proudly. The Raikage nodded and pointed to a small cell of cloud ninja.

"Good to hear. That cloud ninja platoon over there is going with you to Shimon's hideout. They will serve as your back up and you will serve as their's. Is that clear?" asked the Raikage. Naruto nodded and followed Hinata who together joined the cell. After a few preparations, the team headed out and began their infiltration to the hideout.

/./././././././././././././././././././.

**Peacemaker01:** Helloooooo! Guess what? No really, guess! Okay, I'll tell you. You guys are all very helpful with you reviews and I am so happy with all your guy's support. But no, that's not why I am doing this. Okay, so as I am writing this story, I had an idea for a sequel. However there are a few things I need to talk to you guys about. First of all, I need to know if all you guys would like to have a sequel to this story or for me to move on to something different. For me, I care about what I write,

but more importantly, I care about what you, the people, want! I would like to write this sequel for you guys, but I really want you guys to be entertained, not bored. That's about it for now, so really think about it! Bye now! ;)


	8. Chapter 8: Infiltration

Chapter 8

Infiltration

As quietly as a silent breeze, the ninja jumped up and high through the trees while silently throwing weapons down on the rogue ninja guarding the way to the hideout. Once the shuriken and kunai were thrown, the enemy ninja fell to the ground, either dead or unconscious. Their large group of ninja were making better time than they had anticipated. Most of the rogues were weak and stood no chance against the ninja making their way to Shimon Kamizuki. But without a doubt, everyone in the group knew that more and more would come to stop them. Continuing to jump through the trees, kunai knives were thrown suddenly ay Naruto and Hinata's group.

"Scatter!" said a leading cloud ninja. All the ninja split up in different directions as fast a possible. A second later, a paper bomb that was attached to the kunai exploded, leaving a surrounding area of about ten ninja coming this time to stop the cloud ninja. However, their number was decimated within minutes. So far, few cloud ninja were injured; none too badly injured to quit the mission. After the small ambush, the cloud ninja group continued forward to their destination. Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at a large dome shaped hideout with a large sphere at the top with glowing windows that was hidden among the trees with only a few lights on in the building. One of the cloud ninja explained.

"A long time ago, that dome was a base for a special operations team back in the first great ninja war. After the war was over though, it became abandoned and no one has laid a foot inside the place except for Shimon Kamizuki." said the ninja. The group settled down for a second as a cloud ninja named Ginta Kawashima, the leader of the mission, prepared to speak.

"Listen up! This is the enemy's stronghold, which means with out a doubt the scroll is here. Now it looks like there is a north, south, east, and west entrance on each side of the dome. We'll split up into four different teams and enter in through the four different enterances. Once we push our way in, we'll search every inch of this entire fortress to find where Shimon Kamizuki is." said Ginta. Everyone nodded as they understood their plan. After only a few minutes, four equal teams of four were separated with Naruto and Hinata in the same group and on the signal, the teams scattered and headed off to their designated areas. Naruto and Hinata's team were ordered to get the south side of the dome and when the whistle was blown to launch the major offensive, they would burst in through the doors and fight like there was no tomorrow. They waited in front of the south entrance in the bushes, hiding from enemy eyes. Right after arriving in position, Naruto turned to Hinata to speak with her.

"Hey Hinata, can you see the scroll? Or Shimon?" asked Naruto. Hinata activated her Byankugan and looked around the entire dome. She searched every room and hall way with her eyes in only a matter of seconds.

"Yes! I see him. He's on the ninth floor, one floor below the top floor of the dome." she said. Naruto smiled and lightly patted her on the back.

"Great! What do you see?" asked Naruto. Hinata concentrated harder.

"I see thirty men guarding a safe. I also see another man separate from all the others. He has red, spiky hair, and dark, purple glasses hanging on the tip of his nose. He sure looks like the guy we saw in the photo, so he must be Shimon Kamizuki." said Hinata.

A few minutes later after arriving in position, the whistle sounded and everyone moved.

"What is that!" yelled a ninja that was guarding the entrance. Naruto was the first to jump out and with a kunai in hand, quickly came up behind the guy and stabbed him in the back.

"Let's go!" said Naruto and went bursting through the doors and into the dome. As soon as they entered, Naruto expected a large number of guards at to be on the inside of the entrance. But when he attacked, there was no one there to take his blows.

"What! Where are the guards? I would have thought that someone would be standing by the door." said Naruto looking around on the inside. The hallway was narrow and small, but very deep and dark. Hinata and the other two came in after Naruto's outburst.

"M-Maybe they're hiding somewhere. Keep your guard up Naruto." said Hinata worriedly. Naruto brought out a kunai and nodded. As the other cloud ninja looked around the inside of the dome and in the hallways, a voice came from the ceiling where an intercom rested.

"My my, it seems we have guests." said the voice.

"What!" yelled Naruto looking around to find the voice.

"Who's there?" asked Hinata.

"Your host, of course. My name is Shimon Kamizuki. I've been waiting for some sort of retrieval mission of the scroll from the cloud village to arrive. I've been wanting to test out my new power." said the voice with a devilish laugh.

"Oh no!" said Naruto. By the sound of things, Shimon was able to master the jutsu inside the scroll.

"Come to the ninth floor, so that I can demonstrate just how great I really am." he declared and threw his head back in a gruesome laugh. Naruto looked to Hinata and the other cloud ninjas.

"What do you guys think?" Naruto asked all of them. One of the cloud ninja spoke.

"Personally, I think it's a trap." said the cloud ninja. His partner nodded. After hearing their answer, Naruto looked to Hinata and waited for her answer.

"W-Well... it is probably a trap." said Hinata sounding unsure of her own answer. Naruto turned back to the dark hallway and clenched a fist as he stared down the darkness.

"I think it's a trap too. But no matter what kind of trap it is, we can handle it." said Naruto looking over his shoulder and giving all of them one of his signature smiles and a thumbs up. Seeing Naruto filled with confidence, Hinata and the others could feel their own courage rise due to his presence. Answering the call of Shimon Kamizuki, they take up his offer.

Pleeeeeeease don't hate me! I did my best, I really did! Do you know how difficult chemistry is! It's hard! Oh well... enough ranting, I gotta get back to work!


	9. Chapter 9: The Final Battle

Chapter 9

The final battle

The door opened up as Naruto, Hinata, and the other cloud ninja walked into the room. In the middle was Shimon Kamizuki standing and staring at them as he held the scroll in his clutches when they walked in. Behind Shimon were a bunch of thugs with all of them carrying katanas, clubs, and/or knives.

"I'm glad you have made it all the way up here." said Shimon.

"So... why did you just let us in? You could have sent your goons after us or at least set up a trap." said Naruto seeming suspicious. Shimon let out a chuckle and took a step forward.

"Yes, I could have, but that wouldn't be any fun. You see..." said Shimon stepping forward. "I've become so powerful, that I wanted to test my new strength on some worthy opponents. Thank you so much for volunteering." he finished with a laugh.

"What the hell! Is this some kind of joke to you jack-ass!" yelled Naruto getting worked up. Hinata put a hand on his shoulder to try and keep him from charging in.

"Well it seems I struck a nerve. Let's just see how powerful you really are. Get them!" yelled Shimon pointing a finger at the four ninja. On his command, the thugs behind Shimon flew passed him with their weapons raised. Naruto started off with making ten shadow clones and charged into battle. With Hinata's Byankugan activated, Hinata followed right behind Naruto. Then, the two cloud ninja each brought out a couple of kunai and charged into battle. Naruto's shadow clones planted fists and kicks into all surrounding enemies, while some of his clones broke out into a furry of rasengan attacks. It wasn't long before Naruto had taken care of his share of enemies. Hinata was jabbing and dodging attacks like a true Hyuga would. Hinata whipped behind her and dodged a club attack from behind and jabbed the guy in the upper arm. With his arm feeling numb, he dropped his club, giving Hinata an opening to jump up and giving a roundhouse kick to the face. After that, four more enemies came up to Hinata two with katanas, one with a club and one with a knife in each hand. Hinata began to spin around as her chakra expanded out of her body, creating a rotation technique that sent the rest of her enemies flying. As this was happening, the two cloud ninja put their kunai in the ground and clapped their hands together.

"Lightning trap!" they both said at the same time. As soon as they finished, all the thugs inside the square of four kunai in the ground, were automatically incinerated by a light flash of blue lightning inside the square. After the enemies were defeated, Naruto Hinata and the other ninja gathered together and glared at Shimon. He was laughing and clapping his hands together.

"Wonderful! You really are stronger than I thought! I personally thought that all of you would die when I sent my men after you, but you survived. But now, you're going to die, because it's my turn!" he screamed. Chakra began to swirl through the air as Shimon's chakra escalated to amazing heights. So much in fact, his shirt began to rip off from the drastic change in his appearance. His skin turned dark purple and his muscles grew so huge, that his shirt exploded off his body. Dark black horns grew out of his back, chest, knees, elbows, knuckles, just about anywhere they could find purchase. His hair grew to a darker red and became more and more wild and his teeth sharpened and turned to an unhealthy yellow color. As far as anyone could see, this man was no longer human. If anything, a demon. He looked at his hands which were now replaced with claws instead.

"Hehehehe... this is even better than I imagined! This is what I've been seeking my entire life!" he said in a loud demonic roar. Naruto only stared at him in disgust while Hinata looked at him seeming terrified. She was so frightened at the sight of this man and what he had become. The chakra he was emitting had such a tremendous pressure, she could barely standup to it with her Byankugan.

"Hinata!" yelled Naruto. Hinata looked at him slowly and was surprised at the look on his face. "Don't let his chakra get to you!" he looked back at Kamizuki and growled in frustration. "As you can see, he's no longer human, which means we shouldn't hold back against him. If we don't fight to kill, we'll be the ones ending up dead. Give it your all Hinata! We could really use it right now!" said Naruto with the words giving her courage. Hinata swallowed her fear and began to make her flame of courage burn brightly. "As for you two." said Naruto. The other two cloud ninja looked to Naruto. "I think we can handle this. You go help out the others for right now. I have a feeling that they aren't doing to good." said Naruto. At his request, the other two ninja nodded, withdrew their weapons and headed out of a nearby window to assist the others. With them out of the way, Naruto didn't have to worry about anyone else except Hinata. But he needed her right now.

"I'm so tired of hearing you guys talk! Shut up and start fighting!" yelled Shimon. Naruto looked to where he was before, but then realized that he had appeared behind Naruto and Hinata with an outstretched arm covered in spikes. He swung behind him and hit Hinata and Naruto with a monstrous force against their backs, causing much pain. The flew so far, that they hit a wall that was thirty feet away from them and made cracks in it from the impact. They fell to the ground with both of them coughing up little blood. Naruto struggled to his hands and knees and desperately trying to recover his breath.

"If that's all you have for me, then I am thoroughly disappointed." said Shimon. He had appeared in front of Naruto looked down upon him. Naruto was halfway standing up, but Shimon picked him up by the neck, squeezing as he did. Shimon chuckled and threw Naruto up a short distance in the air and let him down a little ways before kicking Naruto in the stomach another thirty feet and hit the wall again. Shimon laughed madly at the power he displayed and began walking towards Naruto.

"Stupid boy. How in the world could you be so strong and be this weak?" asked Shimon. After taking five steps, Hands reached over Shimon's neck and pulled back in an attempt to strangle him. He looked behind him and found that the hands belonged to Hinata, who was trying desperately to hold her own around his massive neck.

"I won't let you hurt Naruto!" she yelled loudly. Shimon looked at the girl as he realized she wasn't just choking him, but also putting chakra in his body to help block his chakra flow.

"Let go!" he shouted. Hinata refused and just squeezed tighter as she held on for dear life. From the other side of the room, Naruto slowly rose and watched the whole scene occur. Shimon roared like a monster and scrunched his body together. Using a strong inner force, Shimon's horns on his back expanded, grew sharper, and longer as they stabbed threw Hinata in the stomach. Blood left her lips again as life inside her struggled to remain. Her arms grew limp and she fell off his back onto the ground. Her head was turned sideways and she looked at Naruto from the other side of the room.

"I'm sorry... Naruto." she thought to herself as she began to cry. "I'm so sorry..." Seeing Hinata fall to the ground, in a limp fashion, Naruto screamed.

"HINATAAAA!" he screamed. Shimon laughed at the girl's death and turned to the boy.

"Oh don't you worry, you'll soon join her." said Shimon speeding towards him. To second later, Shimon threw a punch at Naruto sure that it would send him flying. But regardless of the impact, the punch was lighter than air to Naruto now. One hand was enough to stop Shimon's punch in it's tracks. Shimon stopped smiling and suddenly became worried. Red eyes that practically had death written into them and had very thin black slits for pupils stared at him in an attempt to read his entire soul. Naruto's canines turned into fangs, nails turned into claws, and his hair became even spikier and more unruly. Last, but not least, Naruto's whiskermarks on his cheeks grew bigger, wider, darker and fiercer. After catching his punch, Naruto threw it back at him like it was nothing. From one little push, Shimon went tumbling on the ground backwards forty feet and even breaking through the wall into the neighboring room.

"RRAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Naruto as the kyubi chakra began to cloak his entire body with an added tail. Naruto looked at Hinata on the ground with his sad kyubi eyes and cried a little. He got down on all fours, and using the kyubi chakra, he took the tail he had gained from the fox cloak and brushed the tail all over Hinata's body. Once he did, Hinata's entire body glowed a light red color as her wounds healed almost instantly. Seconds later, Hinata regained consciousness and sat up to be greeted by a smiling Naruto.

"N-Naruto! W-What happened to you!" asked Hinata as she reached a hand to try and touch him. Normally, the chakra around Naruto would have incinerated her, but instead of harming her, the chakra was warm and only tickled her hand a little. Naruto looked away from her face and took a step back and looked at Hinata, grateful that she was still alive.

"I'll explain later Hinata, but right now, I need a favor." said Naruto looking away. Hinata sat up and turned Naruto's face so that he and her were looking at eachother. Red eyes to pale lavender ones.

"What is it?" she asked. Naruto closed a hand around hers and spoke.

"I need you and all the others to get out of this place and get as far away as you can. I want to make sure that no one else gets hurt from my power." said Naruto. Hinata nodded and Naruto helped her up and stood looked towards the door. "I promise, once I'm done here and I have the scroll in my hands, I'll return to the village." said Naruto. Hinata nodded and quickly hugged him before running out of the door. As she escaped, Shimon came through the hole in the wall still covered in rubble.

"Y-You little brat! I'll kill you!" said Shimon. Naruto smirked and got on all fours and appeared in front of Shimon in half a second. Once there, Naruto threw a flurry of punches at Shimon's stomach, after Shimon was stunned from the impacts, Naruto hit him in the jaw with an uppercut and then jumped up to send Shimon soaring with a kick in the face. The cloak around Naruto bubbled more as he began to form a very large rasengan in his hand. Shimon rose from Naruto's kick and made two long black spikes came out of Shimon's arms with both of them on a black and purple flame surrounding them. When the time was right, both Naruto and Shimon sped forward, clashing their attacks. As they both struggled for dominance, Naruto's attack broke off Shimon's spikes and overwhelmingly destroyed him in a spectacular explosion of blue, red, white, and dark purple. After the attack, nothing remained but the ruins of Shimon's entire hideout. Everything was destroyed, including Shimon as he lay on the ground dead with his body nearly torn apart by the massive attack. A minute or two later of silence, the rubble began to shift as Naruto appeared victorious from beneath it. Naruto's shirt had been completely torn off, but in his hand, he held the scroll that Shimon had stolen, the Sacred Scroll of Dragons. Smiling greatly, Naruto moved out of the rubble and slowly made his way back to the cloud village.


	10. Chapter 10: Return to the Leaf

Chapter 10

Return to the Leaf village

Only an hour later the sun had come up over the horizon of the mountains. Everyone that was on the mission didn't go to the cloud village entirely, but waited just outside the gate for Naruto. Above all of them was Hinata, who was the most worried. As soon as early morning, a rustle came through the trees and bushes. Everyone looked in the direction, in hope that it was Naruot. Indeed, it was. Naruto came out of the bushes panting heavily and smiling that big fox smile of his. His jacket and shirt were gone from his body, and he was missing a sandal. The only thing that really stayed together, was Naruto's headband. At the sight of him, everyone at the gate jumped and cheered that he had arrived. Naruto, summoning the last little bit of his strength he had, ran towards everyone at the gate, holding the Dragon Scroll in his hand high above his head for all to see. The sight of the scroll caused an even bigger cheer and almost everyone ran to Naruto to congratulate him. The first to reach Naruto was Hinata, who was crying her heart out that Naruto was safe and sound. Everyone then crowded the two of them in their embrace.

"Hey guys! Give us some room here!" said Naruto over the cheers. Ignoring him, the crowd continued to make a lot of noise and cheer for Naruto. Everyone on the mission was glad that everyone survived, and that there were not casualties. Twenty minutes later, Naruto and Hinata Presented themselves to the Raikage once again, kneeling in place before his throne.

"Lord Raikage, we have completed the mission assigned to us. The Sacred Scroll of Dragons has been recovered in mint condition and returned for your eyes to see." said Naruto. He pulled the scroll out of his pants pocket and held it to the Raikage as if he was offering it to him. The Raikgae got down from his throne and met up with Naruto. He outstretched a hand as Naruto gave the scroll to him. The Raikage looked at the scroll to mkae sure a fake wasn't replaced with the original. After the inspection, the Raikage looked to Naruto and Hinata and smiled mildly at both of them.

"Very good. Stand up." he said. Naruto and Hinata followed his orders. The Raikage put a hand on both of their shoulders and smiled a little bit greater. "You're both very strong to have taken this mission and succeeded. I'm glad that this battle is over and won. You may leave for your village whenever you're ready. Thank you... leaf shinobi." he said. Naruto and Hinata both nodded and left the Raikage in his throne room as they headed back to their rooms. It didn't take long for them to pack up and leave, but they decided to clean up and shower first before leaving. Naruto, being the gentlemen he was, went first so that Hinata could have some privacy. Then, after her, Naruto changed and they began to head back to the Hidden Leaf Village. As they continued walking, Naruto began to talk.

"Hinata... about uh well... I was wondering..." said Naruto scratching his cheek and looking away. Hinata looked at him with a small blush.

"Y-Yes?" asked Hinata. Naruto was silent for a second and then spoke.

"Well... um I was thinking... we've been through a lot in the past few days and... well, I think we've become much closer..." said Naruto. Hinata could feel her heart race as she listened to Naruto's words. "The thing is... I'm glad I'm friends with you Hinata... but, I… do you wanna... um..." said Naruto. He decided he would just come out and say it. "I like you Hinata! And I-I wanna be with you as more than just a friend!" said Naruto blushing furiously. Hinata was speechless as Naruto confessed his feelings for her.

"W-What!" askled Hinata. Naruto nodded and looked down a little bit. "Y-Yes... Yes!" said Hinata cheerfully as she tackled Naruto in a fully body hug. Naruto was shocked by her willingness to be with him, but it made him really happy. After the hug, Naruto and Hinata smiled at each other in silence for a while as they held each other's hands. Naruto started to lean in for a kiss, but Hinata pulled away.

"I-I'm sorry..." said Naruto. Hinata shook her head.

"N-No! It's not your fault... it's just... well, I've never kissed a boy before; or anyone for that matter." said Hinata. Naruto smiled and laced his fingers with hers and started down the road.

"Okay then, we'll take it slow." said Naruto. Hinata hugged Naruto tight and blushed.

"Th-Thanks..." said Hinata. Naruto and Hinata continued down the road, hand in hand, back to the Leaf village.

Dun Duuuuuun! There it is! My first fanfic finished and done! It was a long and difficult road trying to write all of this, but it came together nicely! You all have been such great "fans" of my story and I thank you all! I would esspecially like to thank GODHAND Gene for the horrible review you gave me! Your words opened my eyes to the possibilities that I can do for the characters! I'll try and make good use of your adivce and try to apply it to my writing! If you are still not satisfied, then shoot me another review with a return adress so that I may be able to contact you again! Thanks a lot for your harsh words, and I hope they help me later on in my road to becoming a real author one day! Again, Thank you all for sticking with this story until the very end! (Now all I gotta do is start working on the sequal! XD)


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